How things change - Poland 1989

Came across this clip in YouTube. It isn't funny or quirky in any way. It is just a short clip filmed in Bydgoszcz 1989.
For me, it was interesting to see the cars, clothes people were wearing, etc in Poland back then.
Lousy sound, probably best with sound off.

The most important thing about 1989 is that i born ^^
Remember that szkotja ;)

OMG time flies - wasn't 1989 the year of the Tiananmen Square protests?

Tiananmen Square.
Nintendo start selling Game Boy
Sky sets up in Europe
Ceauşescu executed.
Velvet revolution in Czechoslovakia.

Cant remember what happened in Poland............oh, I remember .........Wyspianska was born !

I work in Bydgoszcz. Thankfully it is improving day by day.

Improving? I was there over 3 years ago and was much better than we see on this video. Really nothing to compare to these days

Actually, it is interesting because it brings back memories. I was in Bydgoszcz around about 1989, in fact it could very well be the same year. I had driven up all the way from Czestochowa. A strange sort of place really, I must say that it was not really my favorite place in Poland. I stayed for a few days somewhere near to the centre of the town and can remember the dreadful roads. I do not know why, but the roads were always the worst I have ever come across in Poland. It is an old German town, I believe called Bramberg, or something similar. I can still remember well the old prewar flat where I stayed near the centre. I doubt if it has changed much to this day, ul Bocianowo? Very strange, this girl's mother did not like me going out very much because obviously I was a foreigner and wanted to go down stairs and meet the locals but she was obsessed with fears of one sort or another. A park with an old church all closed up, a rather sad place one way and another.


Believe me, it could never really improve. Actually as a PS, the video is very much like scenes from Szczecin that I remember visiting at that same time in my life.

If its so long since youve been there I dont think you can really comment on how it is here now. The same as I cant comment on Russia because I have not been there recently. Also, if Bydgoszcz was so bad then surely it can only improve yet you are saying in cant improve. Why is that?


Roads are still a problem now because they are in the process of rebuilding the roads around the town. With 2 new entertainment centres to be built in the centre(one almost finished) they are going to need good roads so that it is easier for people to travel to these places.

Also the international schooling is very good in Bydgoszcz. There is of course an International house school with 20 native English speakers there.
There is also a bi-lingual school that is the best in the Kujawsko-Pomorskie region and is also the only one to run the highest qualification course in this area (dont ask me the name because I really odnt remember lol). In this school all lessons are given in English(science,History<maths etc) and there are students from Brazil, America and Africa all attending. This means is a mix of nationalities around Bydgoszcz which I think is important for the country as it will begin to make people more tollerant of different cultures.

What about the Via Baltica highway? Is this still in the works. Supposed to go from Prague to Helsinki.

Ive just googled that as I havent heard anyone mention it before. It looks like there were many protests about it because of the fact that its planned to pass through many areas of great natural value. However the Polish environment minister has agrred to the proposed route.

Actually, ive just read that the European Court of Justice have ordered Poland to stop cutting down the forests which were in the way of the propsed route. So now I have no idea what they are going to do.

Yes, I should see how the place looks like today. Trouble is, I am in Poland very rarely and it is a long drive from Czestochowa to Bydgoszcz. I have no family there so I have little motivation to do the trip.

You know this is typical of people. These campaigners that complained about the trees being cut down are probably the same people that moan about the Polish economy and the lack of money generated by a lack of tourists. So when there is a massive plan to help boost Polands economy and roads, what do they do? They complain and stop it from happening.

Its people like this in our world that confuse me.

That's rather blessing...

Michal. Are you really English or are you Polish?

It's a similar situation that I deal with. People want better phone service, but they're the ones protesting the building of cell sites :)

I think that trees can be replanted :) and yes, it would bring more tourism. But let the PL govt focus on replacing communist era statues and street signs. That's more important.

I do understand where these people are coming from. I did not like Communism or ever believed that people should live in poverty or under the thumb of Moscow. However, the Polish education system was very good and the Polish were very practical. They produced some fine cinema in the early 1980's Wajda and Man of Iron is one example, and I loved their music at the time-Lady Punk and Manam to name but a few. What is a shame, however is how modernization is at the expence of what was Polishness. Destroying the old 'bar mleczny' for Pizza hut and McDonalds and by getting rid of the Polish Polonez for a BMW or a volkswagen rather than a better newer cleaner Polonez is not making polishness in Poland better rather it is just transcribing another international climate, mainly American upon the Poles. You talk of the best international school being in Bydgoszcz now and I would imagine that it will be yet another institution offering English medium education rather than what should be happening and that is expanding Polish as it was on the International stage. Watch M jak Milosc, sorry, casting, weekend, break-another fifty years and the Polish Language will be like Latin-dead.


Come on, you are just saying that...

I am the producer of this clip, I am glad you all enjoy it!